A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

472 The Founding of the Principate
VI.
City Improvements
Public
(In his public works Augustus showed the true Roman
"^^^ ^' spirit.) The Greek cities are thought to have flourished
Strabov.3. 8.
j-,^^-j-^jy ^^ account of the happy choice made by their
Worff - founders, the beauty or strength of their sites, their near-
60.
'
ness to some port, and the excellence of the country. But
Roman prudence was more particularly employed on matters
which had received but little attention from the
Greeks, such as paving their roads, building aqueducts,
and sewers to convey the sewage of the city into the Tiber,
In fact they have paved the roads, cut through hills, and
filled up valleys, that merchandise may be conveyed by
The sewers, arched over with hewn
wagon from the ports.
stones, are large enough in some parts for wagons loaded
with hay to pass through; while so plentiful is the supply
of water from the aqueducts that rivers may be said to
flow through the city and the sewers, and almost every
house is furnished with water-pipes and copious fountains.
This water-supply is largely the work of Marcus Agrippa.
Many ornaments, too, he bestowed on the city.
It may be well to say that the ancients, occupied with
greater and more pressing affairs, paid little attention to
beautifying Rome. But their successors, and especially
those of our day, without neglecting necessary matters,
have at the same time embellished the city with many
splendid objects. Pompey, divine Caesar, and Augustus,
with his children, friends, wife, and sister, have zealously
surpassed all others in the munificence of these decorations.
The greater number of improvements may be seen in the
Campus Martius, which to the beauties of nature adds
those of art. The remarkable size of the plain permits
chariot-races and other feats ot horsemanship without